A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought ed. by Juan R. Vélez

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought ed. by Juan R. Vélez Serenhedd James Juan R. Vélez, editor, ed. A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022 532 pages. Hardback. $75. The books on John Henry Newman keep on coming. It is an encouraging situation, for Newman's story can scarcely be said to have ended with his canonization by Pope Francis in 2019. One can only wonder at how the latest English saint might have annotated the little biographical list he kept of his life—"and now a Cardinal, &c"—with the confirmation of his entry into the empyrean and his elevation to the altars of the Church. Newman is not just a saint for England, of course. Let it be remembered that the miracles necessary for his canonization were found to have occurred in the United States, and so it seems fitting that the contributors to this doorstopper volume edited by Fr. Juan Vélez (author of Passion for Truth: The Life of John Henry Newman, 2011) write from all over the world, specifically from the Americas, Europe, Australia, and the Far East. The fragrance of the snapdragon on the wall has been wafted to the corners of the globe: "Their sound is gone out into all lands" (Rom 10:18). Vélez is clear from the start that the aim of the volume is "to strike a balance, disagreeing at times with Newman, indicating omissions or completing ideas he put forth without diminishing his contributions or, worse, denigrating him" (xvi). This is to be welcomed, especially in the last instance; he identifies "a hermeneutic of suspicion" that has led some "to consider that Newman's personal recollections are false until proven true" (xvii). He observes that in recent years certain scholars (he names one obvious candidate) have gone [End Page 134] out of their way to impute motives and impulses to Newman that amount to little more than speculation. It was a tendency that the late Fr. Ian Ker particularly deplored, and so it is that chapters on Newman's engagement with his students and his relationships with his friends are to be particularly cherished. As Ker often asserted, the reason that so many modern commentators have been happy to attribute something "more" to Newman's interactions with Ambrose St John is because very few people today are able to understand the deep and intense nature of Victorian friendship. Fewer still seem to be fortunate enough to have experienced it for themselves. Twenty-seven essays divided into two sections dealing with New-man's character and his doctrine respectively present a fresh approach to aspects of both. Barbara H. Wyman on Newman's women associates is an especially important inclusion, while Paul Shrimpton's evocative piece on Newman the educator reads like a eulogy for a form of pedagogy that has been lost. Focused on the pastoral care of the individual student and often developing into a lifelong mentorship, it turned out plenty of public figures who were considerably more rounded than many of our leaders of today. That is not to say that all leaders of today are without their merits, of course. Anthony Fisher, O.P., the Archbishop of Sydney, reflects deeply on Newman and conscience; Stephen Morgan, Rector of the University of St. Joseph in Macao, writes of "the vivid power and synthetic originality" of Newman's approach to the exercise of the imagination (54); while Fr. Carter Griffin, Rector of St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, DC, engages with Newman's call to celibacy in the context of his immediate circle and through the lens of later papal teachings. A narrative of conversion—and not only of life—also appears, for those with eyes to see. Tracey Rowland, who here considers development of doctrine, edited "The Anglican Patrimony in Catholic Communion: The Gift of the Ordinariates" (2021); Vélez emphasizes that many of the writers are "Christian Protestant converts to Roman Catholicism," (xvi) and himself contributes to a chapter (with Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, whose The Roman Mass appeared last year) which traces the intellectual...